(1) Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to methods and systems to restore windshield wipers. More particularly, the invention relates to the construction and use of a portable windshield wiper restoring system having a first compound curvilinear restoring channel defined by three sides of relatively fine texture and a second compound restoring channel defined by three sides of relatively coarse texture.
(2) Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,776 granted to Glazar attempts to restore wiper blades by utilizing a single fixed blade design which cuts the lower or narrow portion of the wiper blades, only. The Glazar tool can produce non-uniform results due to differing blade thicknesses and shortfalls associated with flexibility and rigidity of automotive wiper blades. If one depresses too firmly upon the wiper blade, the Glazar tool can overcut. If one depresses too lightly upon the wiper blade, the Glazar tool can undercut or fail to cut. The cut depths are fixed on the single blade design. The possibility and need to reverse the device's direction and cut the wiper blade from the opposite direction to achieve a balanced cut is at best, unreliable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,802 granted to Samuelsson may be viewed as a squeegee blade trimmer and accomplishes a single use operation which is to re-cut the lower or narrow edge of a window squeegee blade and renew the edge of the blade by cutting the original single, narrow lower profiled edge only. Window squeegee replaceable blades are generally thicker and stiffer by design. This allows for the cutting of such blades more accuracy and with effective results. Unfortunately, the squeegee blade trimer by Samuelsson is of little use for the restoration of automotive windshield wiper blades.
Other wiper blade treatment systems of the prior art include U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,657 granted to Fabian, U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,765 granted to Weiler, U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,351 granted to Klotz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,471 granted to Freeland, U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,266 granted to Traynor, U.S. Pat. No. 7,125,327 granted to Wu, U.S. Pat. No. 8,491,361 granted to Sylvester, U.S. Published Patent Application 20070183186 by Lin and U.S. Published Patent Application 20110217912 by DAI.
Burnishing the wiper blade within a wire brush device or similar abrasive pad materials such as a 3M Scotch-Brite does not serve the same purpose. The wiper blade is embedded in these materials via a slot and is essentially “scoured” along the length of the blade. This does not accomplish the function of re-honing the blade equally on all sides while providing a renewed edge which is critical to the purpose of restoring and refinishing the wiper blade.
Presently, all automotive wiper blades differ in width and design. Rigidity properties make it unfeasible to cut different blades that are of varying thicknesses and depths with a single fixed blade cutting design. Presently, no prior art for a single hand held device offers a dual or two option surface restoration arrangement which is achieved utilizing two different abrasive materials of differing grits for a single purpose of restoring automotive wiper blades on all three sides simultaneously in a uniform manner.
The known prior art fails to provide the disclosed three sided resurfacing systems of the presently disclosed embodiments. The prior art follows a “one surface works for all” theory that fails to account for real world conditions.